20 Drabbles
by Roguish Smile
Summary: 20 Drabbles on the Winchesters
1. Blurb

There are 20 drabbles here, and I plan to post them all at once here on ff . net with no discussion or dialogue. I will post them piecemeal on livejournal with the kind of meaningless rambling that I usually come out with for such shorts.

Dean's and Sam's ages are represented in the chapter title with a comma where relevant. Spoilers are labelled with a full stop (). Spoilers will be restated at the top of any one drabble.


	2. Just Him and His Baby 26, 22, s1e1

26, 22

1.1

It's raining on the Impala's roof, heavy and then nothing and then heavy again. Squalls of rain. He feels vaguely like he's drifting with the road, slowly to the left, more sharply to the right. The headlights only show him the encroaching dark and the strip of the road markings leading his way through the night. He's going to pick up Sammy, find his dad and kill whoever or whatever the fuck it was killed his mom. Until then, until that very moment. There's nothing but the two of them, him and his baby, on the road in the dark.


	3. Fully Fledged 26, 22, s1e1

26, 22

1.1

Dean knows hunters raised by other hunters – knows that eventually they start up on their own, following their own leads, looking out for themselves. His father looks weirdly nervous when he tells him about the Voodoo priestess in New Orleans. Dean attributes this to worry for his safety when he suggests Dean take it alone. His first solo job (pre-planned) at twenty six. Dean's first and only thought is that his dad thinks he's ready: he's never been happier. His dad disappears that night; he can only think it's about time fate came and bit him on the ass.


	4. John's Demons s1e4

1.4

At the first sign, omen or trace of sulphur to suggest demon, John's first reaction had always been to get the boys away from the job. To pastor Jim's, sometimes to Bobby's if he was free. Demons were the true dark of the world – evidence of hell. From his first meeting he knew that was the one creature he never wanted them to face.

The only exorcism they'd ever seen before that terrifying moment in the cabin of an aeroplane in flight had been on TV. Sam has never been happier that his law studies included a compulsory Latin class.


	5. Wendigo 18, 14, s1e2

14, 18

1.2

The Wendigo took a piece out of their dad so big that nothing in their first aid kit would cover it. Sam sat with a towel wadded up, both hands putting all his fourteen year old body weight on it as blood oozed red around his hands and his brother went back into the woods – alone – to set fire to the animal their father had only just survived. Sam can hear him moving out there, hear him ranting as he fought to light bloodied rags. Sobbing at his father's rattling breaths, Sam thinks this job isn't right for him.


	6. First Scars 15, 11

15, 11

Sam gets the wound that would become his first scar aged eleven. He's never seen so much of his own blood before and he really thinks his dad should be more worried about him. Instead he's teaching dean to sew.

Dean's biting his lip hard enough to draw blood, stomach twisting as Sam makes a sharp noise that he would have called a squeal if he was in the mood to tease. He isn't. All he can think about it how he's failed and his dad will never let him protect Sammy again.

John watches his little soldiers grow.


	7. Teddy Bears 14, 10

14, 10

"I've got to see Sam. I've got to make sure Sammy's alright." Dean has both arms wrapped around his ribs and is rocking gently back and forth in his seatbelt in the passenger seat. His first hunt, aged fourteen, hasn't gone brilliantly, but the ghost that had thrown him against the wall was salted and burned. John had just wished the body they had dug up in the graveyard had been old enough to be bones, not the withered corpse of a little girl – about Sammy's age – clutching a teddy bear in her coffin and stinking of death.


	8. Reaching An Understanding s1e18

1.18

John sees something in Dean's eyes he knows, he understands, and so he drags him into the new world he's found without any hesitation. He trusts him to be able to cope. He learns a lot from Dean about what kids should and shouldn't know about the world and tries to do better by Sam.

When John looks at Sam he doesn't see anything he understands in there, nothing familiar at all. Feeling disconnected, he starts leaving the kids along for longer and longer, until one day he realises they're not kids any more and he's done it wrong again.


	9. Keep Sammy Safe 4, 6months

4, 6 months

Dean is like him, John learns that in the first four years of his son's life, as he grew up running and shouting and fighting and loving so strongly he couldn't sit still from it. Sam is all his mother; something precious for her, unexpected, cherished. Her soft eyes and her gentle ways. With Mary's gone - and the house and the photos and every delusion about this world he once held - all of it gone, he knows he needs to keep Sam safe. He's the last little piece of her in this world left for him to protect.


	10. First Do No Harm

(Any episode where they sit there looking at the recently deceased like they know they should be doing CPR but don't know how.)

John knows what he's doing when he decides not to teach them CPR. Dean asks him once, awe in his eyes, after his limited skills, drudged up from his old marine training, held on to a life long enough for the ambulance to turn up. He thinks about it, long and hard. But he knows his sons too well, knows they've got too much of their self-sacrificing mother in them. Sam only wants to keep them safe, but Dean wants to be a hero. John's not going to teach them something that's going to get them killed for a corpse.


	11. Knives Under Pillows 8, 4

8, 4

When he introduced Dean to the world they were now living in he did it because he knew his son would want to be involved. He was old enough now to watch his brother while John took on the first hunts of his life, but he needed to know how to keep himself safe. Dean lapped it up, going from child to man overnight, strong now he knew what was at stake. John knew he'd done the right thing when he found his knife under Dean's pillow in the morning. Now Sammy would be safe. His little piece of Mary.


	12. Leaving at Gunpoint 22, 18, s1e22

22, 18

1.22

They'd been fighting when they arrived at Bobby's junkyard, John sliding to the stop in the gravel drive, Dean in the passenger seat with his arm's crossed, Sam in the back behind his father with his face pressed up against the glass. John slammed the car door behind him as he got out of the car, and that more than anything told Bobby just how serious this discussion was going to be. Less than an hour later they would leave – the Winchester family – at the business end of Bobby's shotgun. Bobby would never see that family whole again.


	13. Broken Promises s1e20, s2e10

1.20, 2.10

The friction between them starts early. They're both too strong to be in the same place, and while Dean will happily defer, submit, anything for his father's approval; Sam can only ask why. Why are we never safe? Why salt on the threshold? Why do you abandon us? Why isn't protecting us enough? John can only leave his answers empty and hope he finds out for himself.

As John learns and searches, discovering what's planned for Sammy, he knows his promise to Mary to protect _her_ Sammy was going to be the hardest promise he would ever have to break.


	14. Bobby's Sofa 16, 12, s4e2

16, 12

4.2 (kinda)

Dean did best by his brother in everything that covered his safety, but sometimes John thought he might have a bit of a sadistic streak in him. He always used to lay claim to the sofa at Bobby's – leaving Sam to the thin air mattress hauled out for their visit. He was older, worked harder, was more beat up. All the excuses and more came out. Bobby calls him on it when he's tall enough for the scene to look comical. Sam finds out that night, going to bed jubilant, that the stuffing is failing and the upholstery rough.


	15. Drawing the Line 27, 23, s1e21

27, 23

1.21

When he found out that the demon that killed his Mary was gathering an army of human soldiers, willingly turned - not possessed - his morality was torn. His job was to kill the monsters - that one monster specifically. Humans were a different matter entirely. When he heard the rumour than they were demon-enhanced psychic killing machines, he felt better. That was well within the realms of monster, he could kill that. When he found out about Sammy's visions - when realisation dawned - the decision was long made and the horror of it all settled over him like a cloud.


	16. His Own Son 27, 23, s1e21, s1e22, s2e1

27, 23

1.21, 1.22, 2.1

Not long into the realisation that Sam was meant for the destruction of the planet under the guidance of the demon he'd hunted all his life, John realised that he couldn't kill his own son. He didn't have the capacity, the strength. When life tried to take his eldest away from him he evaluated his options and didn't think hard on it. He chose hell over losing either son. Sam had Dean, had always been safest with Dean. And if everything went wrong…

Whispering into his ear, he handed Dean the worst responsibility of his life. And then he died.


	17. Bobby's Sofa II 29, 25, s4e2

29, 25

4.2

That night at Bobby's – hell looming over their shoulders and angels foreboding in front – Sam takes the sofa automatically. He's at least eight inches taller than the last time he slept there, but it doesn't seem to matter. Dean pulls out the air mattress from where it's always been, throws a sheet at his brother. Bobby comes down and frowns at them, takes them upstairs to the room their daddy used to use, a decent enough bed. They exchange a glance and turn and go back downstairs without a word. Too many ghosts for a day like today.


	18. Growth Spurt s4e13 minor

4.13 (but not major)

Dean starts his growth spurt at twelve. It becomes a joke as he out grows another pair of trousers, another pair of shoes - too fast to hand them down. He's twice Sam's height when he stops at six-one and John's kinda glad. It's always been hard giving orders to someone taller.

Sam's small for his age at twelve, and thirteen, and fourteen. He screams at his dad that it's his fault; bringing them up in a fucking _car_. He starts growing a week later and doesn't seem to stop. John wonders if that's why his orders don't stick anymore.


	19. Family Traits

John's father had been a frustrated, angry man. He'd done his time in the marine core; a better shot than most, he'd been taken places he hadn't wanted to be and seen things he never wanted to again. He told John about it in bloody, gory detail whenever his mother was out of earshot.

His mother had been the only one capable of reigning her husband in. She had been a powerful woman; will of steel and a gentle smile. She hadn't told any of them she was ill. Not until the hospital called. Then all she'd managed was goodbye.


	20. The Campbells, MAJOR s4e3

MAJOR 4.3

Mary reminds John of his mother. Capable of such loving intensity. When her father suffers a breakdown, killing her mother and himself, the strength he sees in her as she recovers is awe-inspiring. She seals that part of herself, her parents never to be mentioned again. John's father walks her down the aisle.

When she asks to name her first child for her mother, John agrees immediately. His Impala fills with laughter as they drive home with a baby boy.

When she asks to name their second after her father he thinks maybe she might have finally forgiven Samuel Campbell.


	21. A Lost Letter, MAJOR s4e3

MAJOR 4.3

"I know who you are, Dean. I can see John's eyes in yours, hear him in your words. It must hurt you to know this, but things are set in motion now that I can't ever escape. You might hate me, for going against your wishes. For getting out of bed on November 2nd 1983. I haven't forgotten. I won't ever forget. But you have to know that it's what I have to do. Because whatever might happen to me that night, it leads to the man who stood there and tried to save my life. And you are spectacular."


End file.
